Vintage is always a wonderfully popular theme for weddings, parties and afternoon tea get-togethers. We created these gorgeously sweet and fun vintage teapot cookies inspired by retro designs for an afternoon tea wedding reception recently. They were such a pleasure for us to make and just because we’re generous you can even head over to the Craftsy.com blog for our full tutorial on how to re-create these pretty treats yourself!
Vintage teapot cookies
These sugar cookies were a lovely and fragrant Sicilian lemon oil infused batch which, of course, made the kitchen small incredible! We added a hint of natural lemon extract to the royal icing also just to accentuate the citrus scent and flavour.
For these lovely cookies we were asked to create wedding favours that reflected the couple’s fun afternoon tea themed reception which included toasted scones, light colours, polka dots, pots of tea, fresh flowers, finger sandwiches and vintage teapot centre pieces.
We were a little inspired by our favourite Wedgwood teapot that features in the photographs alongside our cookies. It was perfect - a clean and simple yet retro-style design, gold accents and spring-like colours.
Frozen is always a popular theme we get asked to re-create in cake form. We’ve whipped up shimmering snowflake encrusted cake pops, mini cakes glistening with sugar ice, and beautiful isomalt icicles perched on top of frosty looking cupcakes… even in the middle of July! One of our first cakes of 2015 was even a delightfully fun and subtle Frozen-inspired birthday cake for a huge Olaf fan.
As usual with cake orders we have a list of requests. This sweet cake needed to be white with a few snowflakes and edible snowballs, feature the lucky recipient’s age, have a large bow situated somewhere on the finish design and most importantly a fun-loving edible Olaf character jumping for joy on top!
Flavour wise the cake was a drool-inducing marshmallow and chocolate cake! We baked Belgian chocolate layers of cake before filling them with our own marshmallow cream and crumb coating with a chocolate fudge buttercream. We even covered the cake with marshmallow fondant!
Our little Olaf model is 100% edible from his modelling chocolate arms to his marshmallow fondant tummy. We began our figure by researching and gathering together lots of images of Olaf from the movie. We sketch and take note of little details such as the positioning of facial features. This process can take a little time, but really helps to get characters looking perfect!
Our happy Olaf cake left us along with a large batch of Frozen themed vanilla marshmallow cake pops too ready for a fantastic Frozen themed birthday party!
Sometimes the most fun cakes are the most straight forward to design and construct. Here’s a bright and simple birthday party cake that we created featuring a hand-made and edible Hello Kitty perched on top! We loved creating this sweet design plus the fairly plain cake left us with a great canvas to work on an adorable gum paste / modelling paste Hello Kitty character happily clutching a fondant / sugar paste balloon; perfect for a lively get-together!
Our design requests for this treat included an edible Hello Kitty figure, a white iced vanilla and strawberry cake with a white chocolate ganache, the colours pink and yellow and generally a need for an un-fussy but fun look.
We added the cute little balloon to add a sweet playful look and feel to the cake. This was definitely one of our favourite things about the whole design, but we do love that the edible confectioner’s glaze painted onto the surface created a realistic shine!
Our little Hello Kitty was created using custom coloured gum paste / modelling paste and by carefully studying lots of images from official merchandise. It’s important when re-creating well known characters to pay close attention to the positioning of eyes, noses etc (an art school essential is being told that the ’empty’ space is an equally important part of the work). If it helps sketch out a character on grid paper while studying the subject and mapping out the distances between facial features.
To re-create this cake with a different spin some fabulous ideas would be to add white on white swiss dots around the sides with royal icing, make tiny fondant gifts to sit around the character’s feet or to create a large bundle of bright balloons to nestle into Hello Kitty’s paw!
Of all the novelty cakes we create our favourite to make are minion cakes! Who doesn’t love those insane, fruit obsessed, nonsensical and cute little hench-people in the Despicable Me movies? This week we had lots of fun creating a cake version of the ‘evil’ purple minion of Despicable Me 2 for a birthday party. We loved this little misfit so much we just had to post some photos of it on the blog!
We used a small 6″ hemisphere cake pan to bake the domed head and the rest of the body was made from 1 inch thick layers of three 6 inch circle cakes; all vanilla flavour. Each layer was sandwiched with our lovely and silky vanilla pod infused buttercream. We crumb coated the stacked layers and iced with custom coloured fondant / sugarpaste before transferring to a ‘metal sheet’ decorated cake drum.
Our favourite parts of the minion included creating the fun hair, ‘knobbly’ teeth, stitched pocket and rather nonchalant eyeball! Of course, we enjoyed every other aspect of this cake; from the silver lustre dust painted board and dungaree buttons to the stretched, floppy arms.
When it comes to minion cakes we love how customisable they are. We love the idea of adding towers of baked treats next to an especially gluttonous little minion or adding some fun personalised costumes for them to wear! If we had to create a pair of minions to represent the both of us they’d be balancing cake orders in fetching yet impracticable tweed ensembles. What would your minion version look like?
Here’s an eye-catching wedding cake we created for a ceremony this weekend. We were asked to make a three tiered creation incorporating red roses. We kept a lovely traditional look to this cake by only adding small details such as the quilted and pearl studded board, royal icing pearl borders and fondant Neo-classical inspired frames alternating on each tier. The dramatic deep red roses were to remain the key focal aspect of this cake so we made them a little more playful by adding curled fondant rose petals drifting down the sides.
A total of 40 hand made gumpaste roses adorn the top and sides with bright pops of green rose leaves. The small fondant rose petals were added as a finishing touch to create a romantic yet slightly whimsical feel to an otherwise dramatic wedding cake.
We love the detailed frames which are somewhat reminiscent of Neo-classical medallion backed chairs. Adding these to each tier of the cake helped to incorporate texture and dimension as well as a wonderfully theatrical antique look to the end result.
We thoroughly enjoyed working on this design as we got to play with some elegant yet dramatic ideas from crafting dozens of red roses to the idea of incorporating an antique aspect in the design.
Here’s a super fun Star Wars themed birthday cake we created this week! We had such fun making this. Everything is edible from the rice krispy treat moulded Death Star to the modelling chocolate Chewbacca!
The cake itself consists of two layers of vanilla with a blue velvet layer in the middle. All layers are sandwich with Bailey’s irish cream infused buttercream… yum!
To make the Death Star we moulded the shape from rice krispy treats, iced it, added the details with modelling tools and silver dragées, then covered it with dark silver lustre dust.
Here’s our cartoon style Yoda figure which was created out of both modelling chocolate and reinforced fondant /gumpaste.
Chewbacca stands just over 4 1/2 inches tall and is made entirely out of a modelling chocolate and fondant / sugarpaste mix. To finish we hand painted Chewy’s fur with a darker brown food colour to add a little depth.
Finally, the text was (painstakingly) cut out by hand. We created a stencil of the required phrase printed out in the Star Wars font before cutting each piece out of reinforced fondant / gumpaste.
Easter is finally here and for a little bit of fun (yes, on a holiday AND on our time off) we decided to put together some rather fun little cupcakes that suit the occasion particularly well we think. Our design ideas for these furry nice bunnies was the process throughout the Easter holidays (or any holiday season for that matter). Our hot cross bun baking bunny begins the holiday season with the best of intentions; full of festive spirit and raring to whip up everything from scratch! The second bunny is overwhelmed with Easter and buried underneath a myriad of carrots. Finally, our third bunny rabbit has just given in to the gluttony of modern day Easter celebrations; chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate!
Each cupcake is flavoured to match its decoration. The hot cross bun baking bunny is a delicious apple and sultana cupcake, the carrot overload bunny is a spiced carrot and orange cupcake and the chocolate chomping bunny rabbit features a vanilla cupcake with chocolate chips and a chocolate ganache filling. All are then topped with vanilla buttercream and fondant icing. Just because we’re ever so generous we’ve included our recipe for each flavour with this post!
We added a fun ‘organic carrots’ signpost to our ‘overwhelmed’ bunny cupcake along with lots of bright Easter eggs!
Our adorable little chef bunny was certainly busy in the kitchen with its rolling pin, batter splattered floor, mixing bowl and tray full of freshly baked hot cross buns.
Here’s our overwhelmed bunny cupcake.We often feel like the above bunny rabbit most of the time. The cupcake itself is a delicious spiced carrot and orange cake.
Here’s our chocolate overload bunny who has found themselves amidst a plethora of tasty chocolate Easter eggs! We added a little lustre dust to the eggs and wrapper to create a shimmery metallic look. The cupcake flavour for this was vanilla with chocolate chips with a lovely chocolate ganache filling.
Mmm… hot cross buns. For this cupcake we mimicked our favourite hot cross bun flavour and created an apple and sultana cupcake with a hint of nutmeg and cinnamon!
We’ve also submitted all three of these funny Easter bunny cupcakes to The Pink Whisk’s Easter Makes & Bakes Competition and placed second!
We hope you all enjoy a fun-filled Easter weekend and that you find yourself more like the baking or chocolate bunnies we created rather than the poor stressed-out little carrot buried rabbit! Hoppy Easter!
Yesterday our friend Tammie flew over from Australia to visit everyone and, of course, we saw it as a great ‘hoppertunity’ to create this adorable kangaroo party cake! We entertained ideas from Moomins to luggage cakes before settling on having the cake topper be a hoppy little ‘roo.
The cake itself is a lovely pink lemonade flavour; perfect for spring! Inside are layers of natural lemon extract infused cake filled with a generous amount of home made raspberry jam. We then smothered the cake in raspberry buttercream and added fun rainbow sprinkles!
This cake was also a belated birthday offering for Tammie so we whipped it up with a little birthday party theme too. We popped a colourful little party hat atop of our fondant ‘roo as well as a brightly coloured blossom nestled in her pouch.
With the Easter festivities fast approaching we’ve began working on lots of sweet cake, cupcake and macaron treats for you to whip up at home. It’s one or favourite times of year for cake and cooking decorating because of all the fun and adorable things just waiting to adorn home baked treats! With that in mind here’s the first of our Easter recipe and tutorial collection; how to create Floral Easter Basket Cupcakes! Be sure to try out our accompanying recipe for lemon and marshmallow cupcakes for a delicious Easter treat.
Step 1: Roll out some pastel fondant mixed with tylo powder in your chosen colour and cut with a 2 1/2 inch scalloped circle cutter. Add extra detail by pressing the small end of the ball tool into each scallop. Leave to dry and harden on a clean flat surface. Once ready set on top of a piped cupcake!
Step 2: Take a little brown fondant and add a couple pinches of tylo powder. Using a cake smoother roll these out into a thin ‘rope’. To do so ‘roll’ your cake smoother over an oblong shape of brown fondant backwards and forwards.
Step 3: Slice your ‘rope’ in half with your blade tool and gently twist both pieces together to form the handle for your basket. Set aside to harden and dry.
Step 4: Take a ball of fondant about the size of a ping pong ball and add a pinch or two of tylo powder. Roll into a smooth and crease-less ball in the palms of your hand. Work into an oval shape to form the beginning of your basket.
Step 5: Using the larger end of your ball tool indent the centre of your basket.
Step 6: With your veining tool etch out a wicker-like pattern along the outside of your little fondant basket.
Step 7: Roll out some more fondant into a thin ‘rope’ and attach this along the top of your basket. Add detail with your veining tool.
Step 8: With some edible glue attach three miniature candy / chocolate eggs into your basket.
Step 9: To make the little blossoms roll out coloured fondant and cut out the florals using your blossom plunger cutter.
Step 10: On a flower foam pad shape the petals of your blossoms with smaller end of your ball tool.
Step 11: Add the blossoms to the basket with a dab of edible glue and finish the centres of them with sugar pearls or small balls of fondant.
Step 12: With edible glue attach your basket handle and leave to set. This may need holding up with strips of kitchen towel or cling film.
Once you’ve finished why not arrange your gorgeous Floral Easter Basket Cupcakes on a pastel cake stand strewn with silk flowers and crepe paper ‘grass’ for a gorgeous spring look.
